Colour printer

[fausto copy]

My Canon Pixma i4300 has finally given up the ghost after an almost perfect 9 years or so.
I've been looking to buy a replacement but most seem to be printer/scanner/copier/fax all-in-one machines which I don't require or want.
Canon do a couple of photo/document only printers (ip 7250 for one) which would seem eminently suitable except for the fact that most of the reviews complain that every time one prints something out, it goes through a self-cleaning mode which takes ages and uses up copious amounts of ink.
I don't seem to print out that many photo quality prints these days and therefore could probably forego the 5 or 6 ink tank versions (although long term these can work out cheaper as you only change the one colour that runs out).
Anyone recommend a suitable machine as I'm fed up of looking at all the review sites to try and get what I want?
By the way, I fear the ip7250 will be shortly replaced as it's been out for a few years and most suppliers now seem to be out of stock with no sign of replacements.
Thanks, fausto.

[DaveP]

the 5 or 6 ink tank versions ... can work out cheaper as you only change the one colour that runs out

I have an iP4700 (5 tanks) and have been amazed by how often they all need replacing together
To the extent that I am seriously considering buying a cheap laser printer for everyday use. They seem to start for just a few pounds more than the cost of a set of ink tanks. As soon as I have some space...

[[XAP]Bob]

I have to question whether occasional commercial printing might be a better option?

[Mick F]

+1

We have a monochrome laser printer, and that fulfills 99.99% of our printing needs.
If we wanted a colour print of something, we'd get it done in town. Maybe print off a few photos at the same time.

Another option is to email the requirement to a friend with a colour printer and ask them to do it!

[al_yrpal]

Which is recommending Epson Expression XP 820 at the moment. Its an all in one so it scans too and wifi. I mostly use wifi printing all the time now from tablet and Chromebook. Very convenient. Its about £140.

Al

[661-Pete]

I have the luxury of both a mono laser and a colour laser. The mono (brother HL2030) is set as the default and gets used most of the time, the colour (Samsung CLP325 - chosen mainly for its compactness, I have little space for it) only occasionally, and we're still (after several years) on the first set of toner cartridges for the colour one. Just as well - for both ink and laser printers, the real rip-off is in the replacement ink/toner cartridges which - especially if you go for manufacturer recommended brands - cost a fortune! For the mono we use unbranded 'generic' toner which seems to work OK, despite what the user manual says! Not sure what I'll do when it comes to the colour.

[ferdinand]

I'm a fan of colour lasers, which have the advantages of speed and moisture fastness, and may be cheaper in the long run.

I bought an Epson colour laser for ~£400 or so back in 2005 (Epson Aculaser c900 iirc), and I have only just got rid. Colour quality was professional level despite the "personal printer" price (then). I published greetings cards with it. I ran it using monochrome only as the default option. At the time a deal gave me a photoinkjet free, but that only lasted a few years and decent photo paper was 40p-50p a sheet in quantity, compared to 2p for paper for the laser.

On toners - yes, expensive, (£250 for a set to do 6,000 pages or so) but third party refills worked acceptably.

One option that I have just taken is to buy a higher end colour laser printer with little use secondhand. In my case the price was the value of the ink left in the toners, so the printer was effectively free - risk of buying a pup notwithstanding. But that is a beast of a machine about 3 categories higher (OKI C9655) as often found in print shops - A3 duplex and paper weight up to 300gsm. I paid £500 for a 9 month old machine, compared to a new price of around £2.5k.

Perhaps that would be an idea if you find a secondhand workgroup colour laser printer?

One tip: lasers can often run far heavier card than they will tell you. My Epson was specced for ~120gsm, but would run 200gsm quite happily.

Best of luck.

Ferdinand

[fausto copy]

Thanks for the replies so far.
I should have said that apart from the occasional photo printed, I regularly print off my touring routes from OS Maps (as discussed in other thread), and other documents, so cannot rely on others or commercial printers alone.
I have a perfectly good scanner for occasional use, which is why I don't see the point of going for an all-in-one machine and the laser printers are way outside my budget. And as I don't have any peripherals (smartphone, tablet, GPS etc.) which require Wi-Fi I just need a printer with USB connection to connect to my steam-driven PC.
fausto.

[axel_knutt]

I have no printer at all, because I refuse to be ripped off with the ink prices. If I want a print I use the printer in the library.

Which is recommending Epson Expression XP 820 at the moment. Its an all in one so it scans too and wifi. I mostly use wifi printing all the time now from tablet and Chromebook. Very convenient. Its about £140.

Al

Which have some useful tests covering overall cost of ownership too, with ink costs including all the waste from cleaning. According to this months test, the amount of additional ink wasted in cleaning varies from 4% to 273%, and the typical three year ink cost on a £50 printer varies between £89 and £352.

[Flinders]

Epson inks, especially if you use generics and not genuine epson, tend to be cheaper as you aren't buying new heads every time.


I reckon Epson is better for colour too, but to get the best colour matching to images you need to use one of their pigment ink printers and use only epson inks, which is pricey. But the results are far more lightfast than ordinary inks, which discolour in sunlight very quickly. I keep a large format pigment one for work, but do routine office stuff on a cheap epson (P50) using generic inks. It's been very reliable.

Edit- wow, the P50 is much more expensive now than when I bought one.....

[al_yrpal]

There are so many companies doing clone ink cartridges now the cheap printer/expensive cartridges business model is becoming flawed. Thus the printer manufacturers are having to whack their printer prices up.

I print things very rarely because its easy to keep all sorts of receipts and stuff online in Evernote. Inkjet photo prints I dont trust because I think they will eventually discolour. We view all photos digitally on the TV with the Chromecast and the few we need printed I get from Photobox online.

I have found the scanner on my HP all in one printer excellent to turn photos into permanent digital copies.

The use of printers is getting radically changed by 'the cloud' and technological advances.

Al

[fausto copy]

Just been in town and thought I'd pop in to Argos to see what they had.
Went against the grain and bought a Canon Pixma MG4250 all-in-one printer.
I'd had a look on the websites and this particular model had some very good reviews, including ease of set-up. We shall see.
Also reduced from £60 to £45.
Thanks for all your replies,
fausto

[Flinders]

There are so many companies doing clone ink cartridges now the cheap printer/expensive cartridges business model is becoming flawed. Thus the printer manufacturers are having to whack their printer prices up.

I print things very rarely because its easy to keep all sorts of receipts and stuff online in Evernote. Inkjet photo prints I dont trust because I think they will eventually discolour. We view all photos digitally on the TV with the Chromecast and the few we need printed I get from Photobox online.

I have found the scanner on my HP all in one printer excellent to turn photos into permanent digital copies.

The use of printers is getting radically changed by 'the cloud' and technological advances.

Al

I get you about the cartridge thing. At one point it was cheaper to buy a new printer including a set of inks than a new set of inks separately, which was ridiculous. Now printers cost much more, and the ink cartridges you get with a new one are often 'special' ( where 'special' = 'hardly have any ink in them').

If you want permanence, you have to use pigment inks like Epson Ultrachrome. They are expensive (mine come out at over £100 a set for an A3+ printer, though they are pretty big cartridges), as are the printers that use them, but they perform well in my experience, and on a fully calibrated system the colour can be very accurate to the screen display. My Epson 2100 is now donkeys' years old, but still prints perfectly, and can print on heavyweight paper (300gsm) and card even, as it has a flat feed route as well as the normal one for thinner papers (if you don't mind feeding in each sheet individually).